The Pizza I Made Last Night

On Sunday I made a batch of par baked pizza crusts, Boboli style. Last night I used one of these crusts to make a pizza.

I used the crust straight from the freezer. I used the frozen sauce from a few weeks ago. And thankfully mozarella was on sale at the store last week so I didn’t have to use cheddar or something weird. I think the cheese is my favorite part of any pizza, but then I’m generally a fan of dairy anyway.

I left this in the oven to bake for about 15 minutes. People, let me tell you! This was the easiest, cheapest, best homemade pizza I’ve ever had in my life. This was the end result of several small, successful steps over the last few weeks ( sauce, crust, crust) and it has paid off immensely. Not only is this pizza tasty, but I know exactly what is in it and exactly who handled it and exactly where it’s been. As long as I’ve got time to “put up” pizza crusts, I will never order out for pizza again.

Now, about those cheese sticks…

The Pizza Crust In My Freezer

Lately I have been so disgusted with the price and quality of delivered pizza. It occurred to me I must be able to do this better for a fraction of the cost and so began my obsession with pizza crust! Originally I experimented with Jiffy Mix boxed pizza crust. The leavening is baking powder which makes a crust that is floppy and spongy. I wanted the real thing and broke down a couple weeks ago to buy a jar of yeast. This weekend I finally attempted real pizza crust.

The recipe was from my favorite stand-by website www.recipezaar.com. My search for “whole wheat pizza crust” turned out a couple of potential candidates. In the end I chose a recipe because I liked the ingredients list and because the procedure seemed unstuffy.

My yeast is in a jar instead of a packet. But the jar recommends an equivalency of 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast for each packet, or 4 1/2 teaspoons for this recipe. This seemed like a lot to me, and it seemed like maybe people were using two packets only because that’s how the product is packaged! So I went with three teaspoons just to see how it would go and to save a little yeast.

For the flour I used a combination cracked wheat and whole wheat flours. I avoid using all-purpose flour if I can help it. I avoided the sugar completely. I’m pretty sure the only reason to put sugar in a yeast dough is to feed the yeast.

After mixing, rising, and such the dough was cut into four pieces for four separate crusts. Instead of dressing the crust right away with sauce, cheese and toppings, I par baked the crust to freeze for future use, almost like a Boboli.

In the end this turned out more like a focaccia than a pizza crust. It was just a little denser than I like, but it should work extremely well for pizza in a hurry. Especially since I have the pizza sauce frozen in serving sizes. So long delivery. Next time I make this crust I will first try it with more yeast. If that doesn’t work, I’ll back off the yeast but add the sugar. Then if that doesn’t work, I’ll go full yeast and full sugar.

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 packets active dry yeast

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon sugar

1 1/4 cups warm water, plus

1 tablespoon warm water (105 F to 115 F)

The Wheat Crackers I Made This Weekend

My favorite cracker is the Ak Mak stone ground wheat and sesame cracker. The word cracker is a pretty simple one and you would think the ingredients should be as well. Ak Mak did it right: whole wheat flour, water, clover honey, sesame oil, butter, sesame seeds, salt, yeast. But since I’m such a huge fan of finger food, crackers don’t last long here. I can find them readily at Central Market, or if I really dig around I can sometimes find them at the normal grocery store. But it’s frustrating to pay almost two dollars for a box that lasts only two days. And since the ingredients list is so slim, why are they so expensive? For sure I can do this myself, right? Sunday night I decided to try this out.

I went to my stand-by website www.recipezaar.com to look for cracker recipes. There were plenty to choose from. I picked this one submitted by WaterMelon because her recipe matched Ak Mak the closest. This dough is essentially a pie dough (flour, fat, water) and should be handled the same way.

For the flour I used a combination of two flours: cracked wheat and whole wheat. For the fat I used olive oil. I did not add the sesame seeds because I prefer them on top instead of inside. It’s been extra humid here lately so I did not need to use much water. I’ve been saving the bags from cereal boxes lately, as per my mentor the Frugal Zealot. I used these to roll out the dough between instead of parchment paper or wax paper. This worked like a CHARM! It doesn’t rip or get water soaked or oil soaked. With this technique I was able to get the dough thinner than the 1/16th inch recommended. I think this is what made them bake so crispy.

These turned out so good! I took some to work for others to try because my opinion is not especially objective. One woman said they tasted like wheat thins! What a great compliment. I will definitely make these again in the future and I will definitely NOT change anything about the procedure. Although I might experiment with herbs and spices in the mix.

The German Riesling I Tried

Schmitt Sohne is the brand of wine I picked up Friday night on my way home from work. It was an impulse purchase made because the display shouted $6.15 and because I’m a little fond of rieslings. Ahhh, German wine! I’m no wine expert but I believe what they say must be true — the wine must “breathe”. My first swig from this newly opened bottle was a mouthful of alcohol. After letting the wine settle in the glass for a few minutes, the second swig was much tastier; less alcohol, more fruit flavor.

This is a sweet wine with peppery bite at the end. It is a pale gold color, like a glass of gingerale after the ice has melted. The packaging is most attractive. If any of you readers were caught up in the cobalt glass frenzy of the 90’s you’ll love these bottles.

The Subway Sandwich I Love

Even before fat-butt Jared became their spokesman, I was a huge fan of Subway. We had a shop in my hometown so I’ve been a customer since 1991. My favorite has always been the meatball marinara sub. This is best garnished with the yellow banana peppers (or are they pepperoncini?) for a truly Italian flavor. If you can eat the sandwich right after it’s made, the provalone cheese is still gooey (yum!).

However, this is not what I call “date food”. The Subway Meatball sub is very messy from start to finish. If the bread is even a little stale, the sandwich is prone to dripping out the end (ew!). Stale bread is a good way to lose a meatball. Because my favorite sandwich is so messy, I did not get one today for lunch with a former co-worker.

The Central Market Store Where I Stopped

Yesterday I stopped by Central Market after work. Although making it sound like a casual encounter is misleading. To “stop by” Central Market on my way home I have to go fifteen miles round trip out of my way. But if you’re a foody like me it’s worth it! I wanted something sweet and guilt-free to snack on in the mornings because the regular grocers all came up goose-eggs. I walked out with twenty-five dollars worth of food! There was the child-size spaghetti and meatballs I picked up for dinner, two boxes of my old standby Ak Mak whole wheat sesame crackers, a jar of Chinese hot mustard (which should be readily available at regular grocers but isn’t), a box of whole wheat lasagna noodles (also mysteriously not available in stores), a lone cucumber, a box of four frozen pork egg rolls, and a box of Puffins Milk and Cereal bars - the thing I went in for.

I love this store and have petitioned them repeatedly to open one closer to me. Their closest competition is OK, but the primary focus there seems to be merchandise and not food. Plus it requires your “whole paycheck” to shop there (wink, wink) so it’s just not as satisfying.

As far as I know, Central Market is a regional thing because they are owned and operated by the regional grocer H.E.B. However, much like their local competition, they may have branched into larger, health-conscious markets by now.

The Quizno’s Turkey Bacon Guacamole Sandwich

Sunday afternoon I was at the mall. On my way out I picked up a sandwich from Quizno’s in the food court. I ordered a small turkey bacon guacamole with tomatoes and onions on wheat bread. The service was questionable, but then it’s a sandwich place not Chez Nous. The guy at the end of the line almost forgot to add guacamole before he wrapped it. I’m glad I was standing there to notice.

This sandwich was yummy, and not just because it had a wad of guacamole on top. The bread was tender and easy to bite off. In other words, one bite didn’t squish out all the filling. The turkey was sliced extra thin and was also very tender. The tomatoes, onions and cheese had melted together nicely. Under everything was mayonnaise. I will probably get this sandwich without mayonnaise next time as it made the sandwich “juicy”. The guacamole was not like dipping guacamole. It was not tainted with unnecessary spices, onions, tomatoes, and who-knows-what. It was just pure squashed avocadoes with salt, pepper and lime juice.

My opinion of this sandwich was positive overall. I can count my visits to Quizno’s on one hand, but each time it’s been a winner.

The Reason I’m Not Blogging

I’m feeling a bit heiffer-ish this weekend. No sense in magnifying my shame by advertising everything I’m going to eat, right?

The Lean Cuisine Noodle Bowl

The Lean Cuisine Teriyaki Steak meal I had for lunch today is a “noodle bowl”. This was a spur of the moment purchase I made today while running errands over my lunch break. I use the words noodle and bowl in quotes because, technically, this is not a noodle bowl in the traditional Asian sense of the phrase. It is only Asian-inspired.

The beef steak chunks tasted less like a steak cut and more like a roast beef cut - kind of dry and chewy. A couple of the chunks were a bit fatty/gristly. I had no complaints about the veggies, they all seemed frozen fresh and were crisp-tender after the recommended cooking time. The noodles, however, were a disappointment. They were plain old, semolina-flour, egg-based, spaghetti noodles. The portion size was sufficient. This meal-in-a-bowl cost me $2.40 at Wal-Mart. If I could get this for under $2 I would probably buy it more often.

The Homemade Pizza Crust

This homemade pizza crust turned out so much better than the last time, but still a little spongy and floppy. It was rolled cracker-flat with a rolling pin and parbaked for eight plus minutes at 425 degrees. Next time I need to prick or dock it first to avoid the puffy-baked bubbles. If I do this often enough, I should be able to justify the cost of a pizza stone or at least some cheap paving stones from Home Depot. This should help make the crust crustier.
Also, I need to blend or process the remaining spaghetti/pizza sauce as it’s way too chunky for pizza.

The Jack In the Box Big Texas Burger

Tonight I picked up a Jack in the Box Big Texas burger and a small seasoned curly fries.

The curly fries were excellent, as usual. I’ve never had any complaints about JIB fries except the portion sizes. A small packet is unusually small and more expensive than regular fries.

The burger was pretty good. I don’t know what about this burger makes it a “Big Texas” burger. The patty was substantial. It could have been ¼ pound precooked weight, but if so then the meat must have been extremely lean. The toppings included cheese, pickles, onions, and mustard. Overall this was a good burger, as fast food burgers go. This “Texas” burger beats McDonald’s Texas Homestyle burger by a country mile.

The Slow Cooker Crockpot Chili I Made

Sometime in the last couple weeks I made a slow cooker crockpot chili from a vegetarian recipe book. It has:

14oz can tomatoes
14oz can kidney beans
14oz can white beans
8oz chopped mushrooms
Small bag shredded carrot
Med chopped zucchini
Chopped green pepper
Chopped white onion
Cumin
Chili powder
Salt & pepper

The recipe also called for 10oz frozen package of corn which didn’t get put in until the whole thing had been cooking for several hours. This is because I forgot about it, being out of sight in the freezer. But it’s good I forgot, because there was truly NO room left in the cooker at the start. After it had cooked down a while, there was more room. I looked at the recipe later and realized my cooker is half the size recommended. No wonder! This turned out very tasty, especially with a dash of Tabasco. It made so much I froze five double-sized portions for lunches.

The Sherbet Vanilla Ice Cream I Found

That ice cream reminded me a lot of a Dairy Queen Mr. Misty float because of the citrusy/creamy flavor. Unfortunately, that serving ends the orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream combo box. This was unlike any ice cream I’ve ever bought in a store. It was different and tasty. This was a no-name brand from a store I rarely go to so I don’t know when I’ll see it again.

My Tightwad Gazette Ideas

I have been heavy into Amy Dacyzyn’s Tightwad Gazette books. She recommends using a solar cooker when possible to reduce energy consumption and reduce heat generation in the summer. This seemed like a good idea to me because it’s been at or near 100 degrees for the past 40 days. Texas sucks. Anyway…

The Pasta thing is something I made a few weekends ago. I got online and found a few designs for solar cookers. It took me six and a half hours one Sunday to put one together. By the time it was done, there was little sun left to cook with so I tried it the next weekend. The first thing to go out was:
1-14oz can chopped toms
Same can of water
Same can of whole wheat pasta
Various herbs and a splash of olive oil

This stayed in the cooker for about an hour. As it turns out, this was toooo long. The whole wheat pasta, which usually takes longer to cook anyway, came out mushy. Next time I’ll leave it for 30m and check for doneness. This stayed in my fridge to the next day when I divided it into freezer containers for lunches. For a dash of creaminess I added a dollop of fatfree yogurt to each container. It turned out pretty tasty! More on my solar cooking experiments next time.